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Luzifer
Luzifer is a heavyweight robot from a German team, The Devil Crew, which applied for Series 8 of Robot Wars. Despite initial concerns about transport arrangements between Germany and Scotland, the team managed to find a way to transport Luzifer to the studio, but the trip would ultimately not take place, as Luzifer was not selected to compete. Luzifer can be seen as the spiritual successor to the incumbent German Robot Wars champion, Black Hole. After Robot Wars began its 12-year hiatus, a newly rebuilt Black Hole 2, with a much higher emphasis on pushing power, was sold to The Devil Crew, who rebuilt the robot as Luzifer in 2003. The 2016 build of Luzifer bears very little relation to the original Black Hole 2. The name Luzifer is presumably based on the German interpretation of Lucifer, the name of the devil in Christian tradition. Design Luzifer is a four-wheel drive, box-shaped robot armed with an unusual pair of rear- and front-hinged lifters. The lifters are heavily based on those used by American competitor Sewer Snake, and comprise of a front three-pronged lifter designed to get underneath, lift and force other robots onto the robot's top, and a top-mounted lifting bar which is used to throw opponents over. The latter also doubles as a self-righting mechanism, despite Luzifer being invertible. Although this weapons system was made famous by Sewer Snake and its ABC BattleBots incarnation, Stinger: The Killer Bee, Luzifer would have been the first Robot Wars competitor to use such a weapon mechanism had it been selected to compete in Series 8. Outside Robot Wars Black Hole II.jpg|Black Hole 2, the robot that would later become Luzifer. Luzifer_2.jpg|An early version of Luzifer Luzifer.png|Luzifer, when it competed on the Roaming Robots circuit. LuziferMMM21.jpg|Luzifer in 2017 At various live robot combat events, Luzifer has had the chance to fight Tsunami, which its spiritual predecessor Black Hole previously fought against in German Robot Wars. Luzifer also competed in the 2012 RoboGames. In 2017, Luzifer was modified to a two-wheel-drive design. This version was first showcased at Mad Metal Machines 21 in Germany, where it was put on display and test-driven in the arena. Robot Wars Live Events Luzifer made its live events debut at the 2013 Robot Wars Championship in Portsmouth, where it lost in the heats to Beast on a judges' decision. It also represented Germany in a separate "European Challenge" against Gravity from the Netherlands and fellow German robot Tsunami, who Team Kaputo beat with Black Hole in the final of German Robot Wars. However, it lost this battle, allowing Tsunami to gain vengeance on its German compatriot. Luzifer also competed in the 2015 Robot Wars World Championship at Colchester, representing Germany. It fought Dystopia, Gabriel and Toon Raider in its first round battle, but lost on a judges' decision despite surviving to the end of the fight. Luzifer would later represent Germany again in a six-way melee against Behemoth, Weird mAlice, Meggamouse, Ripper and AAK. Again, it lasted to the end of the battle, but lost the judges' decision to Ripper. Luzifer also participated in the Annihilator at the same event, alongside Beast 2, Brutus, Ka-Pow!, Ripper, Tomahawk and Toon Raider. However, it competed without its lifters, and was eliminated in the first round after getting flipped into the pit by Ripper. Luzifer otherwise appears quite irregularly at UK live events, as Team Kaputo still live in Germany. In 2016, Luzifer made an appearance at the second Robot Wars Live Event at Portsmouth. It first fought in a three-way melee with Bullfrog and Gabriel, where Gabriel was flipped out of the arena and Luzifer became immobilised on its lifter after its wheels were lifted off the ground, before being pitted by Bullfrog. With its lifter damaged, Luzifer fought the rest of the event without it, its next battle being a four-way melee against Bullfrog, Cherub and Thorak. It performed better in this battle, surviving towards the end and nearly pitting Bullfrog. Luzifer then fought another three-way battle against Bullfrog and Gabriel, where despite regularly getting itself stuck on the arena walls, it lasted for the full duration of the battle. Series Record Trivia *Luzifer and Beelzebub are currently the only attempted Robot Wars entrants to have a name directly inspired by Christian tradition, if Hellbent and Torque of the Devil are ignored due to their names being real words or phrases. Coincidentally, both Luzifer and Beelzebub are names based on The Devil. **Perhaps a less likely source of inspiration for the robot's name, yet still a coincidence, is the Luzifer chain of restaurants in Germany. External Links *The Devil Crew website (written in German) Category:Invertible Robots Category:German Robots Category:Robots which are still competing today Category:Competitors in Robot Wars Live Events Category:Robots with Lifters Category:Robots with religious or mythological names Category:Robots built while Robot Wars was off-air Category:Robots which failed to qualify for any main series